


The Best Thing That's Ever Happened to Me

by Musicangel913



Category: Lockwood & Co. - Jonathan Stroud
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24256678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Musicangel913/pseuds/Musicangel913
Summary: Immediately post-TEG. My version of "the walk", in which Lucy is thankful for something slightly unusual.
Relationships: Lucy Carlyle/Anthony Lockwood
Comments: 16
Kudos: 52





	The Best Thing That's Ever Happened to Me

**Author's Note:**

> Hello all! Here's a little one-shot for you, my imagining of how Lockwood & Lucy's post-TEG walk could have gone. Snippets of it have been popping into my head for like the last 3 days, so I finally sat down & wrote it today. Hope you enjoy! :)
> 
> ~ Sammy

I practically tumbled down the stairs in my haste, earning raised eyebrows from George, who was busy painting the new door we’d installed in the guest room.

“Going somewhere?” he asked, pausing with paintbrush in midair.

“Just for a walk” was all I managed before I was already halfway down the main staircase. I’d spent so long just staring at the necklace that I half expected Lockwood to have given up and left without me. But he was still there, standing in the entryway just like he’d said he would be. His spotless new coat looked almost wrong, I was so used to the claw marks and ectoplasm burns, but since the previous one had been completely destroyed, it couldn’t be helped.

“Sorry to keep you,” I said, trying to sound casual. “Have you been waiting long?”

“Not at all,” Lockwood reassured me. “On the contrary, I’m thrilled you decided to join me.” He paused and grinned. “Now, a good walk waits for no one, Luce. Shall we?” He opened the door with a flourish, gesturing almost exaggeratedly for me to go first, and I suppressed an amused snort as I stepped out onto the front steps of 35 Portland Row.

“Where are we going?” I asked as Lockwood closed the gate behind us. He shrugged. 

“Wherever our feet take us, I suppose.” A casual stroll, then. Alright.

It was a lovely evening, and for a long time, we walked in silence, content to enjoy the sunshine and each other’s company. After a while, we meandered over to a nearby park and found a bench. Again, we sat quietly for several minutes, listening to the birds chirping and the wind gently rustling the leaves in the trees overhead.

“I’ve never done this before,” Lockwood said suddenly. “Not sure if I’ll be any good at it, really.” I looked at him, confused.

“Any good at what?” I asked.

“This.” He made a vague gesture between the two of us, then shrugged and smiled ruefully. “And judging by the look on your face, I’d say I’m not explaining myself very well, either. Well done, Lockwood, confuse her before you’ve even got started.” He laughed softly, and then after a moment added, “The necklace suits you, Luce. I’m glad you decided to wear it.”

Ah – so _that’s_ what this was all about. This time, I didn’t hold back my amusement.

“I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about,” I said, smiling softly. I reached up to brush the sapphire resting in the hollow of my throat. Then, throwing caution to the wind, I let go of the gem and slowly reached over and laid my hand on his, which was resting between us on the bench.

“Is this OK?” I asked quietly. Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure. Lockwood was so confident, even reckless, when rushing headlong into danger, but he was skittish as a colt when it came to certain other things. I distinctly remembered exploring in Aldbury Castle, when he hadn’t been sure if it was the Creeping Shadow or his holding my hand that had freaked me out so much, and how, during our horrible trip to the Other Side, he’d been so concerned about invading my personal space even though it’d meant one of us would likely die otherwise. In a weird way, it was kind of sweet, actually. In answer to my question, Lockwood carefully turned his hand over so that our palms met and entwined our fingers together. For a long moment, he merely stared at our linked hands like he’d never seen anything so fascinating.

“What makes you say that?” he asked then. “That I’ve got nothing to worry about, I mean.”

“I’m going to ask you a question,” I replied. “What do you think is the best thing that’s ever happened to me?” Lockwood looked up from his study of our hands, his expression bemused.

“Well, I’d like to say it was joining Lockwood and Co., but that’d be a bit conceited of me…”

“…except you’d be right,” I interrupted him. “Well, partially, at least. I was going to say never officially getting my Fourth Grade certificate.”

“Now I’m really lost, Luce.”

“I never got my Fourth Grade certificate, because I left home before I could – you know that already,” I explained. “And I believe it was precisely my lack of that certificate that cost me a job at the six other agencies I interviewed at before coming to Portland Row. If I’d had it, things might’ve gone differently – and I’m not so sure that would’ve been a good thing.”

“How do you mean?” Lockwood asked, his attention now fully on my face. “OK, sure, it probably wouldn’t have been great if you’d ended up at Fittes, given everything that just happened, but you would’ve been an asset to any one of those agencies. Lockwood and Co. would’ve lost out, but you would’ve been fine.”

“That’s just it, though,” I countered. “I really don’t think I would have, and here’s why. I was broken when I came to London. The deaths of my teammates had shaken me to the core, and I was one hundred percent convinced it was my fault. I know” – I paused and held up a hand to silence Lockwood, who’d looked ready to interrupt – “I know. It wasn’t _actually_ my fault, but survivor’s guilt is a very real thing, and I couldn’t help but wonder, what if I’d been just a little bit more insistent, a little bit cleverer, a little bit faster? Would it have made a difference, or would they still have died anyway? It was a question I couldn’t answer, and I was a wreck because of it.

“Why, then, does it matter that none of those other agencies hired me, and you did? Because you gave me much more than just a job, Lockwood. You gave me a chance to learn to trust again. After my teammates died, and Jacobs got off scot-free despite his negligence and my mother expected me to return to work as if nothing had happened, I lost my faith in other people, and I sure as hell didn’t trust myself. Why should I? But being at Portland Row, with you and George, and later Holly and even Kipps, it…changed me, for lack of a better word. Right from the start, you put your trust in me, encouraged me to give my opinion on cases, let me explore and grow my Talents – although we know that last bit didn’t always go well. But even when you were shouting at me over breakfast because I’d done something stupid, I somehow knew it was different – you weren’t shouting at me because I’d done wrong, but because you _cared_. And that was something I wasn’t used to, so I was absolutely floored when I finally figured out what was going on. When you asked me if I was alright, you weren’t just asking about me as an agent, you were asking about me, Lucy Carlyle, as a _person._ And I was slowly realizing that I actually cared for you as people, too. Even when I made terrible mistakes, everyone at Portland Row still loved me for exactly who I was. The big agencies are so concerned with training up agents and getting the job done that I don’t know if I’d have gotten the same treatment there, and it wasn’t until I’d experienced it that I realized just how much I _needed_ it. It was a chance to heal, and I really don’t know that I’d have been able to continue being an agent without it. I’d have joined the Night Watch, or just given up on the profession altogether.”

“And we all know what a sad state London would be in were that the case,” Lockwood replied, whistling lowly. “I, for one, am very glad you never got that certificate, then – although my reasons are arguably much more selfish, of course.” His gaze rested pointedly on the sapphire around my neck, then on our still-linked hands. I felt myself flush a little.

“I have a confession,” I said after a moment. Lockwood looked at me.

“Hmm?”

“I’m actually kind of glad Kipps interrupted us, when we were in the back garden.”

“Well that’s…not what I was expecting.” I laughed.

“You’d just finished showing me your mum’s necklace, and you were about to ask me something when Kipps showed up,” I said. “Am I correct in saying you were trying to work up the nerve to ask if I’d wear it?” Lockwood flushed.

“Perhaps.” I smiled.

“Lockwood, I know you. You wouldn’t have told me the necklace’s entire backstory, just how much it meant to your parents, just for the fun of it. You _wanted_ me to know exactly what it represented, because…well…”

“Because I meant for it to mean the same when I gave it to you,” Lockwood finished. It was my turn to blush. _Undying devotion…_

“I guessed as much, but it would’ve been presumptuous of me to say so.”

“Hardly.”

“Anyway, I’m glad Kipps came out when he did, because otherwise, you might’ve given me the necklace right before we were about to die. I much rather prefer how it actually happened, even if it did mean a stack of DEPRAC paperwork came with it.”

“Yes, yes, we’ve already established I’m bad at this.”

“And I’ve already said you’ve got nothing to worry about,” I said, smiling again. “I’ve already told you how you showed me right from the start that you care about your team as people. Somehow, I don’t think this” – it was my turn to gesture between the two of us – “will be any different.”

“I do care about you, Luce. You’re one of the single most important people in my life – you always have been.” Lockwood squeezed my hand and smiled. It wasn’t the brilliant megawatt smile he favored, but softer, the one he reserved just for me.

“I hope you know I feel the same. We’ll figure this out together, just like we do everything else. It’s not like either of us have extensive experience when it comes to this sort of thing.” I paused and looked sideways at him. “Unless there’s something you haven’t told me?” Lockwood snorted.

“Luce, besides you and Holly, the only women I’ve even really spoken to with any sort of frequency since Jessica died are Flo, Marian, and Kat Godwin. That should tell you all you need to know.”

“Marian?”

“Oh – she was our first assistant. I suppose I never did tell you her name.”

“Ah – the one who called you ‘Big A’.”

“I did say she didn’t last long.” I laughed loudly at that.

“Well, I suppose I’m already doing better than that, aren’t I?”

“Immensely.”

Deciding to throw caution to the wind once more, I scooted closer to Lockwood on the bench so we were pressed together – not in a confined sort of way like we’d been under the spirit cape, but comfortably so. He let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. As before, we sat in silence for a long moment.

“Perhaps we should head back soon. It’s nearing dinnertime.”

“Mmm.”

“Pick up some takeaway so George doesn’t have to cook. Finding bits of paint in our food doesn’t sound so great – you did just say you preferred the not-life-or-death situation when it came to the necklace, after all.” I snorted.

“You know George actually scrubs up fairly well when it comes to his kitchen, but I’m sure he’d appreciate it all the same.”

Slowly, we disentangled from one another and stood. Lockwood took my hand in his once more – I smiled at this new outward show of affection. And so off we went, swinging our clasped hands gently between us and debating dinner options as we began to make our way home.

Who needs Fourth Grade certificates, anyway?


End file.
